Police think the nerve agent used in the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal was extremely rare

The nerve agent used to poison ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal was likely to be extremely rare, a well-placed source told the BBC.

Skripal and his daughter collapsed in a Salisbury shopping mall on Thursday.They remain in critical condition in hospital.

A police officer, who was poisoned while responding to the case, is now “talking and engaging.”

The nerve agent used to poison ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal was likely to be extremely rare, police sources have said.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the substance before they collapsed in a Salisbury shopping mall on Sunday, police said on Wednesday. They have classified the case as attempted murder.

Investigators have identified the nerve agent used on the pair, but are not making it public at this point.

It remains unclear when the two were exposed to the agent. A witness at Zizzi, the restaurant where they were eating before they collapsed, told the BBC that Skripal “seemed to lose his temper” and “just started screaming at the top of his voice, he wanted his bill and he wanted to go.”

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A CCTV image showing Sergei Skripal buying groceries near his Salisbury home on February 27, 2018.

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ITV News

Skripal was convicted of passing Russian state secrets to British intelligence between 1995 and 2004, before being pardoned and sent to Britain in a spy exchange in 2010.